Post-secondary school leaders agree reform needed

Ontario’s universities and colleges are putting the final touches on their responses to the provincial government’s call for reform of higher education.
More than two months after the provincial government released a discussion paper on post-secondary education reform, colleges and universities have until Sept. 30 to submit comments and offer their opinions of how education should be delivered in Ontario.
Regardless of what changes come, those involved in higher education say reform is needed.
“There is no question that the system is not sustainable in its current form,” said Queen’s University Principal and Vice-Chancellor Daniel Woolf.
“We can’t just continue to go on as we have for the past 30 or 40 years.”
Woolf said Queen’s has almost doubled in size in the past 35 years. Student enrolment has jumped in the past decade, reflecting a demand from employers for better-educated employees, Woolf said.
At the same time, he added, government funding of universities and colleges has declined to less than half of total revenue and the hiring of additional faculty has not kept pace with the growth.
Among the suggested changes floated by Training, Colleges and Universities Minister Glen Murray are the re-introduction of three-year degrees, a degree-granting online university and credits that can be transferred from one institution to another.
Throughout the summer, the provincial government met with faculty representatives, students groups and university and college administrators to discuss in detail various areas for reform.
Woolf said it was too early to say what Queen’s Sept. 30 comment to the government will include.
However, Alan Harrison, Queen’s provost and vice-principal, said the university’s academic plan, approved late last year, provides a clear course for the institution.
Gord MacDougall, interim president and CEO of St. Lawrence College, said the reform effort provides an exciting opportunity to improve education.
“I think the question is the pace of change in the economy and keeping up with the pace of change,” MacDougall said.
“As this conversation goes on, colleges and universities are being asked by the government to explain what differentiates us from one another.”
MacDougall said that in the 45 years that community colleges have been around, the institutions have become important institutions in their communities.
“We’ve come a long way in those years,” he said. “We are so integral to our communities and to the region, not just economically but culturally and socially.”
Representatives from both institutions said technology would play a major role in the future of education.
Courses that meld classroom time and online, self-directed learning and research have proved successful and could become more widely used.
Woolf said online resources should be used as a complement to traditional educators, not a replacement.
“I think there is a lot we can do to build on our strengths,” he said.